The Irgun:
The Acre Prison Break

(May 4, 1947)
by Prof. Yehuda Lapidot

Acre was conquered by the Ottomans at
the beginning of the 16th century. The governor of Galilee, Ahmed al-Jazzar,
developed the town, building a fortress and markets and turning it into the
'main gateway' to Eretz Israel (Palestine). Under the British Mandate, the fortress served as a jail,
where underground fighters were imprisoned and where eight Irgun fighters went to the gallows. Acre prison
was the most highly-guarded fortress in the country; surrounded by walls
and encircled to the east and north by a deep moat; the sea to the west. It
was located in the heart of an Arab town with no Jewish inhabitants.

Acre Prison

Despite these factors, the underground never ceased to plan their escape.
The turning point came when an Arab inmate, in charge of supplying oil to
the kitchen, related that while working in the oil storeroom (in the south
wall of the fortress), he had heard women's voices. This was reported to Eitan Livni, the most senior Irgun prisoner, who deduced that the south wall of
the prison bordered on a street or alley in the Old City. The information
was conveyed by underground post to the Irgun General Headquarters, with a proposal that the wall of the oil storehouse
be exploited for a break-in to rescue the Irgun inmates.

Amichai
Paglin (Gidi), chief operations officer, toured Acre disguised as an
Arab, and after thorough scrutiny of the area, concluded that a break-in
was indeed possible. After discussions at headquarters, Livni received a letter stating that it
was possible to breach the wall from outside, but that the success of the
operation depended on the ability of the prisoners to reach the south wall
on their own. To that end, explosives, detonators and a fuse were smuggled
into the jail by the parents of prisoners, who were permitted to bring
their sons delicacies, such as jam, oil, and fruit. The explosives were
smuggled in inside a can, under a thick layer of jam. A British sergeant
opened the can and examined its contents. When he poked inside, he felt
hard lumps (in fact gelignite), but accepted the story that the jam had not
gelled properly. The detonators and the fuse were concealed in the false
bottom of a container of oil, which was also thoroughly examined. The
sergeant poked in a long stick to examine the level of the oil, but since
the fuse and the detonators were less than one centimeter thick, he did not
notice the false bottom.

At that time, 163 Jews were being held
in Acre prison (60 of them Irgun members, 22 Lehi and 5 Haganah, the
remainder felons) and 400 Arabs. The Irgun General Headquarters decided that only 41 could be freed (30 Irgun members and 11 Lehi members) because it was technically impossible to find hiding places for a
larger number of fugitives. Eitan Livni was given the task of deciding who was to be freed and who would remain in
jail (the Lehi prisoners chose their own candidates
for escape).

Irgun Fighters in British Uniform

The break-in was planned for Sunday, May 4, 1947, at 4 p.m. The day before,
the fighters met at a diamond factory in Netanya. A map was pinned up and
the briefing began. The first speaker was Amichai Paglin, who explained the plan
in detail. He was followed by Dov
Cohen (Shimshon), who had been appointed commander of the operation. He
revealed that the fighters would be disguised as British soldiers and
instructed them to conduct themselves in Acre like "His Majesty's
troops."

After the fighters had been assigned to
their units, they were all given an 'English' haircut. The next day, they
were taken to Shuni, a former Crusader fortress (between Binyamina and
Zichron Yaakov), then serving as a settlement for the Irgun supporters. Twenty of them wore British
Engineering Corps uniforms, while three were dressed as Arabs. After they
had been briefed and armed, they set out in a convoy of vehicles including
a 3-ton military truck, two military vans with British camouflage colors,
and two civilian vans. The convoy was headed by the command jeep, and
Shimshon, dressed as a be-medalled British captain, sat beside the driver.

When the convoy reached Acre, the two
military vans entered the market, while the truck waited at the gate.
Ladders were removed from one of the vehicles and the 'engineering unit'
went into the Turkish bath-house in order to 'mend' the telephone lines.
They climbed the ladders to the roof adjacent to the fortress wall, and Dov
Salomon, the unit commander, helped his deputy, Yehuda Apiryon, to haul up
the explosive charges and to hook them to the windows of the prison.

Eitan Livni

Dov Cohen (Shimshon)

Avshalom Haviv

Yaakov Weiss

Meir Nakar

At the same time, the two blocking squads had scattered mines along the
routes leading to the site of the break-in. One three-man squad was
commanded by Avshalom Haviv and
the second consisted of two fighters, Michaeli and Ostrowicz.

An additional three-man squad, disguised
as Arabs, was positioned north of Acre, and when the operation began they
fired a mortar at the nearby army camp. The command jeep halted at the gas
station at the entrance to the new town, laid anti-vehicle mines and set
fire to the station.

Afternoon walk of Acre prisoners

While these units were taking up
positions outside the fortress, the plan was being put into effect inside
the prison. At 3 p.m., the doors of the cells were opened for afternoon
exercise. Those prisoners who were not scheduled to escape went down to the
courtyard to create a diversion, while the escapees remained in their
cells. They were divided into three groups, each in a separate cell.

At 4:22 p.m., a loud explosion shook the entire area, as
the wall of the fortress was blasted open.

The first group of escapees leapt out
of their cell and ran down the corridor towards the breach in the wall.
They had to push their way through a crowd of Arab prisoners who ran out of
their cells in panic and blocked their path. The first escapee, Michael Ashbel, attached explosive
charges to the locks barring the gate of the corridor, and lit the fuse.
There was an explosion, and the gate blew open. The second gate was blown
open in the same way, opening the route to freedom. At that moment, the
second group went into action; they created an obstruction by igniting
kerosene mixed with oil. The ensuing fire blocked the escape route, so that
the guards could not reach it. The third group threw grenades at the guards
on the roof, who fled. In the confusion created by the explosion, the
gunfire and the fire, 41 prisoners made their way to freedom.

The first group of escapees boarded a
van and drove off, but the driver mistakenly drove towards Haifa, instead
of Mount Napoleon. On the shore, a group of British soldiers who had been
bathing in the sea opened fire on them. The driver tried to turn back, but
hit the wall of the cemetery and the van overturned. The escapees ran
towards a gas station, the soldiers pursuing them. Dov Cohen fired his Bren at
them, but was mowed down by a volley of 17 bullets. Zalman Lifshitz, at his
side, was also killed. When the firing stopped, five of the first group of
13 escapees were dead, six injured and only two were unscathed. The
survivors were returned to jail.

Acre prison's wall after the explosion

The blocking unit, consisting of Avshalom
Haviv, Meir Nakar and Yaakov Weiss, also suffered a mishap.
They did not hear the bugle signal to withdraw and stayed put when the
other units had already left Acre. After a protracted battle with British
soldiers, they were caught and arrested. The second blocking unit,
consisting of Amnon Michaeli and Menahem Ostrowicz, also failed to hear the
bugle (which signalled withdrawal) and were likewise caught by the British.

The remaining escapees and members of
the strike force in the truck and the second van escaped safely. They
reached Kibbutz Dalia, abandoned their vehicles, and made their way on foot
to Binyamina. There they were given refuge in the Nahlat Jabotinsky quarter
and the following morning were dispersed throughout the country to
pre-designated hiding places.

Haim Appelbaum of Lehi,
wounded during the retreat, succeeded in boarding the last van, but died
soon after. His body was left in the vehicle, and members of Kibbutz Dalia
conveyed it to the burial society in Haifa the following day.

To conclude, 27 inmates succeeded in
escaping (20 from the Irgun and seven from Lehi). Nine fighters were killed in clashes with the
British army; six escapees and three members of the Fighting Force. Eight
escapees, some of them injured, were caught and returned to jail. Also
arrested were five of the attackers who did not make it back to base. The
Arab prisoners took advantage of the commotion, and 182 of them escaped as
well.

Despite the heavy toll in human lives,
the action was described by foreign journalists as "the greatest jail
break in history." The London Ha'aretz correspondent wrote on
May 5:

The New York Herald Tribune wrote that the
underground had carried out "an ambitious mission, their most
challenging so far, in perfect fashion."

In the House of Commons, Oliver Stanley asked what
action His Majesty's Government was planning to take "in light of the
events at Acre prison which had reduced British prestige to a nadir."

Three weeks after the jail break, the five Irgun fighters who had been captured after the operation were put on trial. Three
of the defendants - Avshalom Haviv, Yaakov Weiss and Meir Nakar - were carrying weapons when
they were caught close to the jail wall. They challenged the authority of
the court and, after making political statements, were all sentenced to
death.

The other two, Michaeli and Ostrowicz,
were captured, unarmed, at some distance from the jail. Since there was a
chance of saving them from the death penalty, the Irgun General Headquarters decided to conduct a proper defense procedure. The
counsel for the defense succeeded in producing documents proving that the
two were minors, and the court sentenced them to life imprisonment.